Lucid Dreams
by Ct2191
Summary: After the double shift from hell the only thing Jane wants to see is her bed. Maura has something 'fun' planned for the night. Confusion ensues.
1. Chapter 1

Jane had never known a day so long. She was used to suspects giving her the run around, but having a high profile lawyer on her hit list meant that every last action she, Frankie and Korsak took had to be documented so the case was watertight. Cavanagh has even asked her to detail where and when she took bathroom breaks. Ridiculous. Tedious. Exhausting.

And if that wasn't enough Maura had informed her earlier in the day that she had a plan for their evening.

'It will be fun, I promise you,' Maura had said when pressed for detail.

The trouble with this description of the night's events was that Maura's idea of the word 'fun' rarely coincided with Jane's. Fun meant baseball games and laughs at the pub, not wandering around museums or calling a bunch of used staples superglued to a canvas 'art'.

She had consoled herself by suggesting that they meet in the Dirty Robber and informing her friend that she would be leaving an hour later than she actually was. Inebriation was the only answer to what was looking to be a long and boring night.

This line of thinking did not prevail for long, however.

She was in the bathroom. The dust coating the mirror had acquired over the years did not conceal the large bags under her eyes or that her hair was limp, and the lime green tiles behind her didn't help. She had the complexion of E.T.

She exited the bathroom, unsure of her reasons for entering in the first place. No room for vanity on a cop's salary and shifts. Having a beautiful redhead in a low cut dress standing next to her and tweaking her already immaculate makeup didn't make her feel any less inadequate. The green hue didn't even dent her beauty.

'Hey, baby, c'mere! I got somethin' for you.'

The man looked old enough to be her father and was far too ugly to think he would ever have a chance. The glass in his hand explained a lot.

Whiskey goggles. Jane rolled her eyes and headed back over to the bar, where Frankie was enjoying his third beer and Korsak was busy cleaning the glasses with a white cloth.

'Yeesh,' Frankie said as she got closer, 'that last beer may have been a mistake, Jane.'

'Really? 'cause I was thinking it had a little more to do with the double shift I just pulled. Maura here yet?'

'Haven't seen her,' Korsak replied, 'don't you think it would be better to call it a night? You look rough.'

Someone decided to start the jukebox up. Disco music. The only thing that could make this evening worse.

'It's a little late for that. She'll be here any minute.'

'Jane Clementine Rizzoli!'

Her mother's voice was very distinctive and far too loud. The drunken man now had the redhead in his lap, and they were both looking in her direction.

Jane turned and started hissing her retort.

'You look like crap. Get home and to bed,' she ordered after silencing her.

'Believe me, I would like nothing more. I'm meeting Maura. She said she has something _fun_ for us to do tonight.'

'Well then you'll just have to tell Maura that you're too tired.'

'No, mum! She'll be all pouty for days-I'm just going to get this over with, and-'

'Heads up.'

Korsak nodded towards the door. Jane turned on the spot and there she stood, as resplendent as ever. Dr Maura Isles. Her cheeks still held their usual glow, her hair a shine and her smile lit up the room. Jane's frown became a snarl.

'How is it,' she began as she marched over to her friend, 'that we both pull a double shift and I'm the only one who ends up looking like Frankenstein's sister?'

Frankie's snigger lasted as long as it took for Jane to turn around and give him a death stare.

'H20,' Maura replied, 'Studies have shown that drinking a minimum of two litres a day-'

'No, Maura, I've had a heck of a day and my brains not up to another lecture on top of the one I got from Cavanagh this morning.'

'But-'

'No 'buts', Dr Isles. Just take me wherever you're going to take me so I can get into my bed as quickly as possible.'

'Not a problem. We're heading back to my flat,' she said with a smile.

'To do what?'

'To sleep.'

Jane stared at her.

'You kept me from my bed to tell me to go to sleep? I'm a big girl, Maura. I can do that in my own bed in my own home.'

'Yes, but not _this_ kind of sleep. Goodnight, everyone! Come on,' she said, but she stopped after a couple of steps and added, 'I'm driving. You smell like a brewery.'

'I'm not that drunk,' she replied, ' _unfortunately…'_

'What was that?'

'Nothing.'

'Oh.'

Jane had intended to take the opportunity presented by a warm car and a comfortable seat to get a few minute's shut eye, but Maura had other ideas.

'You'll ruin it if you sleep now,' Maura scolded each time she poked Jane awake.

Jane tried her best to keep her mind active, to focus on the scenery. She saw a man walking his Dalmatian in the dark, his bald head given a warm glow each time he stepped under a streetlight. The dog looked as tired as she did.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky, but there weren't any stars, either. Jane frowned. She remembered Maura telling her something about pollution having a connection to this, but the details escaped her.

Poke.

Her eyes had shut for longer than thirty seconds.

Poke.

She had been looking down at the bottom of her car for the sweet wrapper she remembered dropping a couple of days ago but Maura seemed to think she was asleep.

Poke.

She had closed her eyes again.

Poke. And again.

Poke. Poke, poke, poke.

'Maura, I swear to god, if you poke me one more time-'

'We're here.'

'Why can't I sleep in here? It's warm and comfortable, and-'

'Jane!'

'You sound like my mother.'

Jane hurried into the house like she depended on it. In truth it was the bathroom with the clean toilet she was depending on.

'In here,' Maura said after she returned and had shrugged off her coat and placed it on the hook next to hers.

Maura's bedroom. Immaculate. Fresh coat of beige paint on the walls, nice new maroon carpet on the floor so deep Jane couldn't feel the floorboards beneath. King size bed with a memory foam mattress. Not a dust ball or cobweb in sight. Jane wondered what Maura would think if she asked to sleep on the floor.

Nothing she hadn't seen before, Maura had shown her the refurnished room with all the excitement of someone who had just won the lottery a couple of days ago, but the two pairs of fluffy blue earmuffs in the shape of Mickey Mouse ears with wires coming out of the tips on the duvet were unexpected, to say the least. Jane pointed.

'What the hell are those?'

'They're yours. And mine. We're going to try them tonight.'

Jane picked up the nearest pair and held them at arm's length by the tip of one of the 'ears'. She didn't think Maura would deliberately endanger their lives, but until she was sure the bizarre devices were not radioactive or designed to hypnotise you into being a serial killer they were not going anywhere near her body.

Maura appeared to sense her concern.

'Did Mickey Mouse get irradiated and chop his ears off?'

'Have you ever heard of lucid dreams?'

'Yeah. Isn't that where you have a dream and you know that you're dreaming, while you're dreaming it?'

'Exactly. The term was first coined by Frederik van Eeden in the late nineteenth century. These may look like earmuffs,' Maura said, and added, 'strange ones, I'll admit,' upon noticing the look on her face and then continued, 'but they're actually designed to induce a state of lucid dreaming. The earmuffs emit music which is supposed to carry you into a deep sleep and from there they measure the activity in your parietal lobes.'

'Will it work?'

Jane placed the earmuffs close to her ears and noted that they were emitting the sounds of raindrops hitting leaves. She closed her eyes and listened for a moment before opening them again and looking at Maura, who seemed amused.

'Well?'

'I don't know,' she admitted, 'these are actually part of a study funded by a company named _NightGlow._ They want us to wear the earmuffs and then send them back so the data they collect can be analysed.'

Jane placed the earmuffs back on the bed. She remembered Maura telling her something about sleep patterns and drinking, too.

'But I've been drinking.'

'Yes, and that's good, because they're actually looking to measure the sleep patterns of inebriated individuals as well as sober ones.'

Jane sighed and gave the earmuffs a suspicious look.

'They can't, like, record your dreams, can they?' she asked.

'Not exactly. They're looking for higher amounts of beta-1 frequency band brain wave activity that is commonly reported in lucid dreamers due to-'

'Maura!'

Maura frowned. Jane rolled her eyes.

'Fine. They're measuring your brain for signs that you're having a lucid dream, they won't be able to tell what you're dreaming about.'

'Good. I'm in.'

Jane picked them back up again and rubbed the soft blue fluff covering the contraption over the palm of her left hand.

'Why were you so concerned about them being able to see your dreams?'

'Because my dreams tend to be… vivid.'

'And by that I suppose you mean erotic?'

'However did you guess?'

'Because I know you.'

'Touché. Your dreams probably involve test tubes and mountains of textbooks.'

Maura laughed and made her way over to the light switch. Jane removed her gun and holster and placed them on the mahogany bedside table before throwing herself onto her best friend's bed like a small child. She noticed the old lamp holder had been replaced with a chandelier-like thing.

'A chandelier in your bedroom, Maura, _really_?'

'Wait,' she said as she turned back around, 'you're just going to sleep like that?'

'Like what?'

'In the clothes you've been wearing since yesterday without even taking a shower?'

'Oh. Yeah. Too Tired.'

'Jane-'

She sat up and stared at the silhouette of her friend that the street lamps were illuminating.

'Hey, I could have been in my bed an hour ago if it wasn't for you, and-'

'You told me your shift finished half an hour ago.'

Busted.

'I lied.'

'So I gathered. Why?'

Maura's voice was sharp and the lights flickered back on. Jane sat up and faced her friend. She considered her options for a minute, pupils flicking form left to right as she did so.

'I thought you were going to make me wander around some late night art exhibition or something, so I decided to get a little drunk first to alleviate the boredom.'

Her mother always said honesty was the best policy. Time to put that to the test.

'I don't know of any late night art exhibitions,' she began, 'but I'd be more than happy to put in a few calls and see if-'

'No, no! Here's fine. C'mon,' Jane said, patting the space on the bed beside her.

The lights went back off.

'Do you really have to sit there and…spread your _odours_ all over my brand new satin sheets?'

'Yes. I'm too tired to change. As I said, I could have been asleep an hour-'

'And whose fault is that? You could have told me the actual time your shift ended.'

'Not showering. If you can afford that chandelier you can afford new sheets, Maura. Besides, I skipped one shower, not a year's worth of them.'

'Fine. Stink if you must,' Maura snapped.

The mattress started shaking and bouncing as Maura, too, climbed onto it fully clothed and settled herself down.

'So now you're not having a shower, either?'

'I see no point. You germs will more than likely find their way onto me as we sleep anyway.'

'Fair enough.'

'Is the light from the street bothering you?' Maura asked after a brief silence.

'It's fine.'

The ceiling had taken on an orange glow courtesy of one of the streetlamps outside. The room had a stillness to it that the silence only added to. She had the earmuffs resting on her chest, the tip of the Mickey Mouse ears tickling her chin, and spent a great deal longer than she should have debating whether or not to put them on. Maybe they couldn't see what you were dreaming, but there was still a good chance of them being radioactive. Or something.

'Are you wearing them yet?' Maura asked after a few minutes had gone by.

'No. You?'

'No. Can I ask you something?'

Jane sighed.

'Go ahead.'

'Do you find all the events I take you to boring?'

Jane didn't answer right away.

'Most of them,' Jane admitted, 'Look, I'm sorry Maura, but wandering around in a cocktail dress or staring at an arrangement of plastic bottles that your mum would call art isn't my idea of fun.'

'It's fine. We have different tastes. Next time we should do something you enjoy.'

'You'd hate it.'

'You haven't told me what it is we're doing yet.'

'You'd still hate it.'

'Probably, but at least we'd be even,' she replied after a laugh, poking Jane in the leg as she said it.

Jane turned her heard towards Maura.

'How did you hear about these dream whatchamacallits anyway?'

'An offer for me and a friend came through the mail. It said _NightGlow_ were particularly interested in professionals with high stress jobs taking part in the study.'

'And you naturally thought of me.'

'Naturally,' Maura agreed.

'Well, I'm fine acting as the guinea pig for one night if it means I get my eight hours. G'night, Dr Isles,' Jane said with a smile.

'Goodnight, Detective Rizzoli.'

She placed the earmuffs on, and found herself very pleased at the fact that Maura could no more see what she looked like than she could see what Maura did. The fits of laughter that would ensue at the sight of Dr Isles as a radioactive Mickey Mouse would ward off sleep for a few more hours.

She allowed the soothing sounds of rain to drag her restless mind into unconsciousness as the urge to laugh abated. The effect was almost as good as a sedative, but instead of forcing her to fall asleep it lead her down a long heavenly path that soothed and protected her from all the stressful thoughts of the waking world.

'JANE!'

Jane shot bolt upright.

The lights were on, and by the doorway there was a man clad in all black pointing a hunting rifle straight at her.

She glanced at the bedside table.

Her gun was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

'Boston Police! Put the gun down!'

The man didn't move inch. His chest wasn't rising or falling. Jane cocked her head to one side, frowned, and slid off of the bed and onto her feet.

'Please be careful.'

Jane marched straight up to him.

'You would think,' she began, 'the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts would be able to tell the difference between a real man and a cardboard one.'

'What?'

Jane raised her right hand and tapped the cardboard cut-out, watched it fall to the ground and turned around with her eyebrows raised.

'I was asleep!' Maura protested

She looked back at the cardboard, a life size soldier with his uniform painted black and the gun painted to look like a typical hunting rifle. It had been held up by a couple of plastic struts secured to the back. Not exactly built for endurance.

'I wonder who put it there,' Maura said as she joined Jane at the doorway.

'Hello?! Tommy? You here?'

'Why do you think it's your brother?'

'Call it a gut instinct. He was always getting up to things like this when we were kids,' Jane explained before calling his name again.

'I don't think Tommy would do something like this…'

Jane turned towards her. She was still wearing the earmuffs.

'And you would know how, exactly?'

'I just think that-'

'Take those things off, you look ridiculous.'

Maura coughed.

' _I_ look ridiculous? I'm sure they look worse on you'

'What?'

Jane felt the top of her head. Her left hand made contact with the centre of one of the 'ears'. She grabbed hold of it by the tip and pulled.

'Ow!'

'What?'

'It's stuck to my head-I can't-'

'Let me try.'

'Ouch-no! That's my hair you're pulling-Maura, STOP!'

Maura did as she was told. It was her time to cock her head to one side. Thinking.

'What is it?' Jane asked.

'Stay still.'

'Huh?'

Maura pinched Jane's arm. Hard.

'Ow! What the-'

Her face lit up. She did it again. Jane jerked her arm away and took a step back towards the bed.

'Have you lost your marbles?!'

She was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

'Don't you get it,' she said, 'I'm dreaming! This is all just a figment of my imagination!'

Jane kept her at arm's length, eyebrows raised.

'Maura. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm pretty sure I'm real.'

'Well you would say that, wouldn't you? I'm sorry to burst _your_ bubble there, _pseudo Jane,_ but you're not 'real',' she sketched quotation marks in the air as she said it and continued, 'Well, unless we're talking philosophy-in which case the lines are a little more blurred-'

'Maura. Read my lips: _I am real.'_

'Ok. Sure. Whatever you say.'

'You've lost it this time.'

'You're-sorry- _we're_ in my head. I'm dreaming. Ooh, this dream is very realistic, I'm very impressed with my memory of this room. Especially since it's newly refurbished. I didn't think I had enough time to commit it to long term memory. Oh! I wonder what kind of readings this equipment is getting right now-my parietal lobes must be very active!'

She poked the left Mickey-Mouse ear and giggled like as small child. Jane stared at her and shook her head.

'Ok. Whatever. You just live in fantasy land. I'm going to find my gun.'

'Hey, wait, this is my dream. My research into lucid dreaming indicates that the individual dreaming can control the events of the dream, so you have to do what I say.'

'Do I now?'

'Yes, and I say: stop moving!'

Jane marched into the living room and glanced around the room. Coffee table, weird paintings, sofa, plants, no gun. Moving on.

'I said stop!'

Kitchen. The instant coffee Jane had snuck into one of her cupboards a few days ago was now in the bin. The work surfaces were gleaming. Nothing in the dishwasher. Still no gun.

' _Stop!'_

A vase on the kitchen sink, the flowers that had once inhabited it were with the coffee.

'Fine, Maura, I'll stop.'

'Thank you.'

'But if this is a dream, it shouldn't matter if I move or not, right?'

Jane picked up the vase in one hand and smirked.

'Jane, whatever you're thinking-'

'I'm thinking if you're right and this really is a dream, me smashing this vase wouldn't actually happen, right?'

'Jane, please-'

The sound of the glass hitting the tiled floor made Jane's ears ring for a few seconds. Maura's expression was enough for her to wish the vase had blinded her instead.

'Oh, relax. It wasn't fancy enough for you: it was plain and round and the glass didn't have some fancy pattern stained into it.'

Jane walked over the glass and back into the living room. Crunch, crunch, crunch.

'Now, about my gun…'

'I didn't say you could start moving again.'

'You didn't say I could smash the vase, either.

'Good point. Maybe commanding you is too simple. I should try _thinking.'_

'Oh, yes, because it's not like you do enough of that already or anything- what are you…?' Jane asked, and then upon deciding she didn't want to know added, 'never mind.'

Jane watched as her friend moved into the living room and sat, crossed legged, on the floor. She then placed her middle and index fingers on either side of her forehead and started rocking backwards and forwards while muttering to herself. A blue meditating Mickey Mouse.

'Vase repair, Jane be gone, Vase repair, Jane be gone…'

'"Jane be gone?" _Really?'_

'Jane be silent, Jane be silent…'

Jane spared her a withering look before redirecting her attention.

Back to the gun search. Leaving her mumbling friend to her own devices, she went back into the bedroom and scoured it for her gun or a clue as to where it might be. There wasn't so much as a speck of dust underneath the bed, and the rest of the room was just as bare. Next she started rummaging around the living room, moving the sofa, checking down the back of it between the cushions, looking under the coffee table despite already being able to see through it and giving the kitchen the same treatment.

Maura's chanting ceased a few minutes after it had started and was replaced by a humming noise that made Jane think of a swarm of bees. The velocity of her rocking had increased. Jane, doing her utmost to ignore her, crossed the room and picked up the cardboard man, marched him to the kitchen and leant him with his face against the wall next to the bin. She looked around her friend's flat once again, trying to think of a place she had not yet searched. Her gaze hit the only other door in this open-plan flat. The bathroom.

She crossed the room again and tried the handle. It didn't budge.

'Maura?'

No reply.

'Oi! Get over here!'

'You're no less rude in this dream than you are in real life.'

Jane held her tongue. Maura got up and stomped across the room and joined her.

'Yes?'

'Did you lock this door?'

'Not in real life, no.'

'So no. Where's the key?'

She examined the handle.

'There isn't one. The door locks from the other side,' she replied.

She sounded surprised.

'That's dumb. What if there's an emergency, like someone injures themselves in there?'

'In real life-'

Jane shook her head.

'Never mind. Just tell me how to get this thing open.'

Maura didn't answer, instead electing to bend down and scrutinize the silver handle at eye level.

'Maura?'

'Interesting.'

'What's interesting? It's the handle to your bathroom door,' Jane asked, and then rolled her eyes.

'It's stainless steel.'

' _Fascinating._ Would you mind just telling me how to open it?'

'You can't. Do you know why I chose a stainless steel handle as opposed to a plastic or wooden one?'

A sigh.

'Because plastic is tacky and wood is old school?'

'No. Because stainless steel is non-porous, it resists bacteria more effectively than the other two surfaces.'

'Wonderful. Now, can you apply that keen mind of yours to something more useful? Say, I don't know, _helping me find my gun?'_

Maura stood up straight and looked at her.

'Is the gun a form of comfort to you? Because it seems to be for real life Jane and I find that very disturbing.'

'Maura!'

Jane grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking. At first the shake was a mild one, but it soon became akin to a theme park ride.

'The reason that handle looks identical to the one on your bathroom door is because that _is_ your bathroom door! I am real, everything you see is real! Now can you please,' she steered her friend around so she was looking back at the door, 'find my gun!'

'Jane.'

Maura shrugged her hands off, Mickey Mouse ears wobbling as she did so.

'If you would have let me finish speaking earlier you would know that _my_ bathroom door does, in fact, have a lock on the outside of it, or rather a catch that you insert a Quarter into and that releases the lock.'

Jane knelt down. Nothing but smooth wood above and below the handle. She turned around and sat on the floor, black resting against the painted wood.

Then, most bizarrely of all, she began to laugh.

Maura joined her on the floor and her giggles were soon shouts of laughter also.

Jane laughed until there were tears running down her cheeks, and even then she didn't stop. Eventually the shouts diminished to bursts and then she and Maura sat still for a few minutes. Jane was the first to break the silence.

'I have to admit, I must know you pretty well,' she said after giving the earmuffs another tug, 'because you are exactly like the actual Maura Isles.'

'Well, that's because I _am_ the actual Maura Isles and you're a figment of my imagination. A very detailed figment of my imagination, granted, but a figment nonetheless.'

Jane laughed again.

'We'll have to agree to disagree.'

They didn't speak again. The earmuffs had started playing that raindrop music once again, a peaceful sound that immediately started tugging at her consciousness. A glance at Maura told her the same thing was happening to her, as her eyes were closed and her head was already lolling, her mouth ajar.

The sound took over. Jane wasn't sure if she closed her eyes or her vision simply left her as she was falling asleep once again. Worries about where her gun was evaporated, and she felt wonderfully light and warm. She was nowhere and everywhere, and spent a few seconds enjoying the feeling of being half way between wakefulness and sleep before drifting further down the path to rest.

Thin slats of light filtering through the blinds and hitting her face alerted her to the fact that morning had risen. She could feel the soft material covering the earmuffs on her ears, the music having ceased, and the hard wood of the bathroom door at her back. Jane opened her eyes wide. The bathroom door?

'Hey, wake up.'

Maura didn't have blinds in her bedroom. Maura's head had fallen onto her chest during the night. They were in her living room. Jane scrambled to her feet, stumbling as she did so, and stretched. Maura awoke, groaning and mumbling before she also became aware of where they were.

There was no life size cardboard soldier leaning against the wall near the bin.

There was, on the other hand, the remnant of the vase still scattered over the kitchen tiles.

'Jane…'

'Yes, Maura?' Jane replied in a voice several decibels higher than her usual tones.

'I can't believe I'm asking you this, but you didn't happen to have a dream about…'

'Searching for a gun, smashing a vase and you meditating?'

They looked at each other. Shock, confusion, with a dash of amusement. Maura's gaze travelled to the things on her head. Jane's did the same.

Without saying a word the pair of them nodded, marched over to the bin and removed the earmuffs, dumping them amongst the dead flowers and insulted coffee.

'What the hell happened last night?'

'I have no idea.'

Jane turned to her again.

'Wait, no weird facts or studies?'

'Not this time.'

'My gun!'

Jane rushed into the bedroom and picked up her badge. Her gun was not with it.

'So it really was missing.'

Maura watched her clip had badge onto her belt before getting onto her hands and knees and searching underneath the bed.

'No, wait,' Jane said, helping her back onto her feet.

'What is it?'

'When I searched for it in the dream, I looked everywhere but the bathroom.'

'Which was locked, and didn't have the catch on the outside,' Maura added.

'Come on.'

Jane walked over to the door at a slow pace, Maura right behind her. Once she was facing the painted wood she placed a hand on the handle and tried to turn it. The door swung open. There, on the lid of the toilet, was her gun. Still in its holster.

She and Maura stood in the doorway regarding it for several seconds.

'Jane?'

'Maura?'

'Can we just pretend like last night never happened?'

'Works for me. I doubt anyone would believe me if I told them, anyway.'

'Oh, but you still owe me a new vase.'

Jane sighed and walked past her friend and over to where she had hung her coat, she dug her hand into one of her pockets and pulled out her wallet.

'How much?'

'Five hundred dollars should cover it.'

' _What?!'_

Maura laughed.

'Relax, after last night we'll call it even.'

'You're damn right we can,' and then, deepening her voice for effect, Jane began chanting, ' _Jane be silent, Jane be silent…_ I think it's safe to say that _NightGlow_ won't be receiving any study results from us.'

'Too right. Now go and clean up the mess you made in my kitchen.'

Jane groaned.

 _ **End.**_


End file.
